This blog has served as a place to reflect and analyze on my journey to flipped learning in my high school math classes from 2011-2014.
While I have transitioned to a role as a Digital Learning Coach, this blog still hosts my reflections from 3 years of flipping as well as thoughts from my new journey as a coach and support to teachers in their journey of effectively integrating technology into their curriculum.
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Saturday, January 19, 2013

12-13 1st semester student feedback: "Suggestions for Changes"

A daily warm up question that should take a few minutes before we start PQ's instead of a WSQ chat

I do this more in Algebra 1, but that is a good thought for Math Analysis. I've also thought about having the warm-up question be the WSQ chat for the day (having it incorporate the key points from the previous nights' lesson)

Just a suggestion, but maybe the last 5 minutes of class or the first 5 minutes of class you could give us a problem from past concepts. It keeps us from forgetting what we have learned. I am not sure how good this idea is though, I don't want too much time to be taken away from our normal routines.

Again, I do this much more in Algebra 1. For Math Analysis, I have been giving them spiral review on each of their Practice Tests, but it is their responsibility to go back and make sure they understand how to do it. It might be nice to throw an old question out there every so often though.

The midnight deadline for on-line work. Sometimes I have to run a lot of errands before I get home, be at meetings, so on and so forth so I might not get at home early enough to get my work turned in on time. The midnight deadlines for other classes don't help as well. I think that if we moved the deadline to something 8am the next day it would be better.

I've been trying to figure out all this online stuff all year since I was only "halfway online" last year. I want my students doing their homework early (preferably before 10pm), but students these days stay up all hours of the night - I don't know how they do it! I do like the 8am deadline because then if something happens at home, they can still come to school early and use the computers/internet at 7am. However, I know that will lead some students to procrastinating until the morning. I guess they have to learn/take responsibility somehow though.

I believe that we should get rid of the WSQ discussion and use that time for PQ's because most students take the entire class time to do PQ's and that leaves no time for the quiz. This results in some students taking a heap of quizzes in a day, which can be very stressful. I think that once we enter the classroom, we should start working on our PQ's/student videos/WPP's and if any student needs further clarification on last nights material, then he or she may ask for help at his or her table. Only the WSQ-question should be mandatory because it forces us to think of a question about the material even if we think we understand the concepts.

I think that our WSQ chats have grown kind of useless, which is our own faults, but asking questions that we haven't already answered previously would be a good way to gain participation and to get us to really think about it on another level.

I do want to do a better job of timing the WSQ chats and of challenging the students' thinking. I did a great job last year and then for some reason, I just didn't do it this year. Some groups spend WAY too long and thus don't have enough time for all the activities I have planned. I would like to restructure the WSQ chat a bit though - I trialed it with Algebra 1 the last few weeks of school. Instead of having them discuss their specific summary questions (which most of them feel is repetitive and doesn't help), I ask a few deeper, new questions on the screen for them to discuss, like the 2nd student mentioned. Then, they review their own HOT questions (which, if they didn't understand one of the summary questions, this is where the discussion of that can come in), and then they review the problems they tried on their own. I think that might help out, in addition to starting to use the timer again so the chats don't go longer than 5-7 minutes max.

I think making it more frequent that Mrs. Kirch reads out loud any questions that students have from the material being learned the night before that are used as HOT questions and having her clarify in front of the class would be a big help.

This is a great idea and one I don't do often enough. I will discuss it with that certain group, but not always with the entire class. A did a few activities at the beginning of the year where they would post their HOT questions around the room or on a WallWisher to be on the blog, but not much since then.

I believe going over questions we got wrong on test more often would be great. Also going over problems that seemed tricky would be nice.

The wonderful idea I had over the summer that never came to fruition was always just making my test answer keys on video so the students could watch them for help. Yeah, didn't happen. The answer keys are there for them, but if they want explanation they have to come in. The few times there has been a question missed by over half the class I will go over it the next day as a warm-up, but that has only been about twice all year.

I like going over tricky problems in small groups rather than with the whole class. There are always students who don't need it and "forcing" them to listen to me is exactly what I am trying to get away from. A few times I have made a special "small group" at the U to go over stuff so the students need more help on and I think that is so much more helpful than having all 40 of them listen to me. Part of this goes back to the students taking responsibility and if they need the help, ask for it, and then we can see who else needs help and if a group is warranted or if one on one is still the best.

I would like for us to start talking about the concept in class together as a class before we go over the WSQ just so we can get out questions out and discuss as a class.

It's interesting that the students I get these comments from (I got about 2-3 like this) are more my "struggling" students (C-D students). This is exactly what the A-B students DON'T want because they don't want to "waste their time" being bogged down by questions they already know the answers to. So, the question is, how do I make sure to reach these students? They have the chance to ask their questions in small groups and get more individualized help - so why do they want more "anonymous" large-group help? I need to find out why...

Surprisingly, the majority of the responses to this question was things like this:

Overall, the Flipped Classroom now is already good enough. I think students or it could be just me, learn way better with this method than the traditional class room. So, I don't really think anything should be changed.

None, I look forward to coming to 6th period everyday

I don't think the "flipped classroom" needs any changes. I am quite satisfied with the results at the moment and i actually learn more from this system than the system of having a teacher explain it in class daily.

I would not like to change The flipped classroom. It has been a great experience for me my senior year and although it requires time and effort I enjoy the organization and benefits of it all.